


Brotherhood

by SeeMaree



Series: The Lesser Victor [2]
Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-08
Updated: 2014-12-08
Packaged: 2018-02-28 17:17:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,236
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2740586
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SeeMaree/pseuds/SeeMaree
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Peeta's brother gives an interview during the Hunger Games.<br/>Why do all Mellark family memories seem to involve someone getting beaten?</p><p>An outtake from Worthless</p>
            </blockquote>





	Brotherhood

**Author's Note:**

> I've been working on the Catching Fire installment of my series, and Peeta's brother is starting to feature quite heavily. He and Peeta need a lot of time to really reconcile, but it just starts to become clear that he is the only person that knows Peeta at all. Which made me start thinking about what that would mean when the cameras arrived for the final eight interviews. This fic is the result.  
> It can be read as a stand alone, but if you like it please check out Worthless, and let me know what you think!

"So tell me about your brother. What is your favourite memory of him?"

Tomas Mellark tries to get comfortable and not look at the camera, as instructed. He can do this. Peeta has been charming the nation for weeks now. This little interview is nothing by comparison.

Making Peeta look good is the least he can do after failing to heroically volunteer in his place.

He leans back in his chair and tries to channel that Peeta Mellark charisma.

"Have you noticed the scar he has along the inside of his arm?" The interviewer shakes her head.

"No, but I'm sure we can find an image of it to cut in. Please, go on."

So he tells the story of how Peeta got the scar.

Peeta had been eight, and Tomas eleven. They had been working a shift in the bakery after school and Tomas had been in a bad mood. He can't remember why, he just remembers feeling angry at the world.

Peeta had been, as always, silently and carefully completing his work, and as the afternoon wore on Tomas' generalized anger became focused on his little brother. Why did Peeta always have to be so perfect, such a goody goody? 

So Tomas had started to antagonize him. Bump his arm as he worked, shove into him as he walked by. Peeta had just taken it, refusing to get drawn in and it just made Tomas madder. So he kept escalating. Until the next time Peeta came past he kicked his ankle and tripped him. 

Except Tomas hadn't seen the tray of cookies straight from the oven in his hands. The cookies had fallen across the floor and Peeta had landed on the tray. When he pulled his arm off the tray a line of skin came off with it, leaving an open weeping wound about an inch wide stretching from wrist to elbow on the soft skin of his inner arm.

"So far this doesn't seem like a very good memory" the interviewer cuts in. Tomas grimaces.

"Yeah I was a jerk I know. But you know what Peeta did then? We could hear mom coming down the stairs, I guess she heard the crash, and we just looked at the mess and knew we were in big trouble. Peeta just whispers that with the burn he's obviously the one that fell and there's no need for me to get it too, and just shoves me out to the store front. Then he tells mom that he tripped, and that I had been out the front helping a customer.

"I had spent the whole afternoon annoying him, and then tripped him so he got this big burn, and he still covered for me and took the punishment himself." Tomas had cowered in the shop front as he listened to Peeta have the crap beaten out of him. He still burns with shame as he remembers what a coward he was.

"Why would he do that?" 

Tomas shrugs. "Because he's Peeta. He can't help himself. Taking care of the people he loves is just what he does." 

"But surely you made it up to him?"

Tomas shrugs again. "I tried to. I went up stairs and bribed Dayvid, our oldest brother into finishing out the shift and then I went to the Everdeen's to get some medicine." The reporter's eyes brighten as she hears this. 

"Everdeen as in..."

"Yeah. Katniss' mother, she makes medicines out of herbs and stuff. I didn't have enough money for the apothecary, but Mrs Everdeen is cheaper." Eleven year old Tomas had never been in the seam before, and he had been terrified. From the way his mother talked he had expected to be attacked and robbed the second he crossed into the shanty town. 

But when he nervously asked someone how to get to Everdeen's he had only gotten a sympathetic look and directions.

"Was Katniss there?" 

He's not sure. He remembers shyly showing Mrs Everdeen his money and telling her that he needed medicine for his little brother. She had spoken to him kindly, so different from his own mother, and asked him questions about the injury before handing him a small jar of cream. And then he does know.

"Yes she was there! I didn't even notice her until I was leaving and she spoke up. Told her mother to give me something for pain too." He closes his eyes and tries to summon the exact memory. "She said to me, something like 'Don't let Peeta hurt. He shouldn't have to hurt."

 

Tomas feels pleased with himself as he heads back to the bakery. Without Peeta there he's had to work a lot more, but it's not something he can really be annoyed about. It's not like his brother is off having a nice vacation no matter what his mother implies.

He's surprised when he comes out to serve a customer and finds the reporter standing in the shop front. 

"Haymitch wants to talk to you." she says, holding out a small device. He stares at it, not sure what he's supposed to do. With an exasperated sigh the reporter leans over and pushes it into his ear. Suddenly Haymitch Abernathy's voice is in his head.

"Kid you there?"

"ahh, yes?"

"Good. I haven't got time for chit chat." Tomas hadn't thought that Haymitch was calling to chat. "I need more from you. You got any more stories about your brother like the one you told?"

"um ah, yeah. A few I guess"

"Good. Cause you're the only person who managed to talk about the boy like he's a human and not a serial killer." 

"What!"

"You know what I mean. The whole 'he's always seemed like a nice boy, polite, keeps to himself.' That's all anyone else had to say about him. You actually made him sound like a hero. And you even had Katniss caring what happened to him. Was the story true?"

"Well I left out the parts where mom beat the crap of him and refused to give him burn medicine, but yeah it was all true. Even the part about Katniss."

"Even better. Did you know about this crush of his?"

"Of course. It's not like they weren't obvious as anything."

"Wait. What do you mean they? Are you saying you though she wanted him too?"

"Well yeah. You don't stare at a guy all the time like she did if you don't like him. I thought they were hilarious. Both of then too scared to make a move."

Haymitch starts to laugh. "Kid you are a gold mine." he cackles again, and to Tomas it sounds a lot like relief. "Look here's the deal. The interviews from home are a big part of what gets sponsors at this point. Katniss is no problem. I would never have guessed it but we've got people lining up around the block to tell us heart warming stories about her. But not your brother. Nobody seems to know a thing about him. Except you. So you better spill your guts about everything you can remember about that boy if you ever hope to see him alive again." 

So that's how Tomas found himself sitting in front of a camera for the next few hours, dredging up every single memory he has of Peeta. His brother's life depends on him. 

But it's fine. No pressure right?


End file.
